Battles galore! This week’s Blood Lad brings us an action-packed experience with tag team battles and brutal smackdowns for days! There’s so much you can practically taste the shounen! Mmmm…

Power-Up Time

Looking pretty badass there.

The action kicks off with some appetizers from Wolf. Apparently the whole deal with sealing his magic in the pipe is to enable him to transform into a werewolf. As we might expect, a regular werewolf can turn into his “werewolf form” any time he likes for as long as he wants. Wolf, being a mutt however, is unable to do so on a whim. Rather, he can only transform when he is surrounded by his magic. And as the magic is reabsorbed into his body, he reverts to human form. This gives him a time limit of three minutes during which he can fight at his fullest, a constant reminder of his mixed-breed heritage. Unfortunately this isn’t quite enough to defeat the freakish Akim, so Staz shows up in a timely manner and tags in.

Overwhelming superiority.

Staz himself has, of course, experienced a power-up as well. Last episode we saw him regain full control of his powers courtesy of Braz. And he immediately puts them to good use as he wipes the floor with Akim’s sorry bottom. Yes, the battle was extremely spectacular and just brimming with the very essence of the shounen genre. From the cheesy dialog with both parties playing a verbal “who’s stronger” game of poker to the over-the-top “finishing moves”, it’s all there. Truly, a crowning moment of awesome for Blood Lad in terms of its shounen roots.1 In the end, I guess even a monster-eating new breed like Akim isn’t able to best a noble demon. Which certainly puts their position in the demon world society in perspective; they deserve every bit of fear and respect they get.

Some Comedy

References, anyone?

Pure, unadulterated action aside, this episode also had its fill of comedy; a welcome addition any time. We start with Staz’s stylish entrance to the party a la falling from the sky. I dunno about you, but I don’t think many people “forget” that they can’t fly. Much less survive smashing into a building. But the latter is just due to Staz’s usual durability, I suppose. Moving on we have Staz’s “signature move” which most of us will probably recognize. Then there’s also the token character freaking out about so blatently referencing an old show, which we’ve seen plenty of from Nyaruko. But that doesn’t make it any less amusing as Bell and Mamejirou look on confused by Fuyumi’s consternations. Not to mention the attack itself ends in a failure when Staz is rudely interrupted by a roundhouse kick. Unfazed, he proceeds to vehemently defend the name of the move and its originator when Akim mocks his inability to deliver it.

Progression

More doki doki haato time with Bell.

With all that said and done, and Akim securely stored in a collection of tanks thanks to Bell, the threat is mitigated and the story moves on. Braz and Liz show up as a sort of cleanup crew to “arrest” Frankenstein and his monster for the troubles they have caused the demon world. In the process, we see some unexpected meekness from the usually spunky Bell. I’d have thought she’d be her usual haughty self, but perhaps even she recognizes when she’s facing truly superior beings? She had acted pretty disrespectfully towards Staz before, but his powers were still sealed back then, which might have emboldened the crafty mage. And speaking of Staz, it’s more apparent than ever that Bell really has a thing for the vampire with her not-so-subtle madly blushing. Though she might be just a little bit mistaken in thinking Staz got his powers back because of their “promise”.

Broforce

There’s also some more backstory about our favorite vampire and werewolf and how they first met. Similar to his entrance to this episode’s showdown, Staz again very literally fell from the sky into Wolf’s lair. I guess the only way off the Acropolis is down, after all. Anyway, the two have a standard “friends disguised as rivals” relationship, which to be honest might not be interpreted the same way by both parties. Wolf seems more concerned with the difference in strength between a lowly mongrel like him and a full-blown noble demon. He’s the underdog, so to speak.2 On the other hand, Staz is more indifferent about strength (he dismisses his own gifts as a burden) and values Wolf’s friendship more than anything else. Looks like these bros are just perfect for each other in more ways than one.

Service shot of the week.

Finally, we come again to the topic of Fuyumi’s resurrection. I keep joking about how it will never happen but lo and behold instead of slipping it off the radar, Braz actually shows an active interest in reviving the human. I’m not sure if it’s merely to satisfy his “scientific curiosity” again or if he’s at least a man of his word, but I’m not believing it will be as simple as him doing some hocus pocus. Surely there must be some catch or more complications.

I know there have been complaints about Fuyumi being demoted to fan-service material and a typical damsel in distress, which I agree is an unfortunate development for her. But perhaps she might take a more active role come next episode? Big bro Braz is going to meet her, and people he “works on” tend to end up with a power boost for better or for worse. Just ask Staz; he’ll tell you all about it. Also it’s good to see him let Liz into his room and spectate Staz’s battle with Akim. At least he’s not completely ignoring her now, even if the purpose of watching the match was probably to gloat over how strong he made Staz instead of bonding as a family. Not that watching your brother in a death-match against a monstrous freak is quality family bonding anyhow. But in any case it looks like next episode will focus on Liz.

1Although for some reason MAL has it tagged as seinen instead.2No pun intended… Heh.

It’s seinen manga because it’s published in Young Ace which is categorized as a seinen manga magazine. That’s all there is to it, really. (People still take these demographic categories way too seriously, even though the boundaries have almost completely blurred by now.)

It must be a curse to be a noble whether they’re human or demon. Always caught in the web of being manipulated and possibly discarded afterwards with the ones responsible practically rubbing it in your face. Not to mention the bitter sibling rivalry.

I’m with Staz on this one. Akim went too far. Anyone who disrespects the Kamehameha wave deserves a serious ass kicking. Since he’s an otaku, I was somehow hoping he’d try the Spirit Gun next. 😉

Bell always manages to steal the show whenever Staz isn’t on screen. To me, she’s similar in appearance to Seras Victoria but her personality is close to Haruka of FLCL. So next week Yuki Kaji takes to the stage. Hopefully his character will make things interesting.

Well, that was quite an enjoyable and freakishly funny episode. Braz and Staz have such an interesting episode since Braz is proud of his heritage and seeks anyway to improve it, while Staz doesn’t really care all that much about it. Yet both are actually very alike which is why Staz can’t often get his elder brother. It’s the old “opposites attract, but similar repels” adage. Werewolves and Vampires have been opposites and enemies in lore for ages, however, those few times seen when they bond or join forces, they are pretty much unstoppable and their link unbreakable. This is clearly seen very poignantly in Staz and Wolf’s relationship, both polar opposites but the best friends. However, Braz and Staz are actually similar and thus their relationship is strained. I don’t know if its because the like elements clash while the unlike elements complement each other, but it’s an interesting dynamic to see here.

Well, other than relationship here, we got some awesome fight scenes in this episode with hilarious parodies of DBZ, FMA, and Naruto just to name a few. Unfortunately, DBZ is one of my least favorite anime so I can’t agree with Staz’s admiration of Goku, however, I still enjoyed watching them showing and making fun of the powerful but quite impractical kamehameha attack.

I really like Akimu as a villain and was kind of disappointed in how he was captured at the end. Bell annoyed me once again and now she’s back on my “most hated character” of this show listed. I do hope that Akimu comes back eventually and that we also see who sent his main component to Franken and why.

Braz and Liz have come down from on high as well and are going to mingle with the peasants to see what their bro is doing as well as to complete Braz’s side of the deal. However, Braz is tricky as most vamps are by nature and he seems to be alluding to an even greater foe on the horizon. I also expect there to be some sort of loopholes or something that Braz will pull to keep his brother in line. (Actually, we should be thankful for Braz keeping his brother to task, or else we’d just be watching him play FFII for the first time.)

I’ve practically given up on Fuyumi and hate Bell for the most part, so I’m mostly here for the guys and the comedy.
I give this episode an 8/10.